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How AppleTV will benefit social housing

Submitted by Mike Zriel on 25th February 2016

According to Apple, the future of TV is apps and this is hard to deny. It is thought that since apps’ first breakthrough on the market, we spend more time on apps than watching our TV. Latest figures show that we spend nearly 200 minutes per day on apps whereas we only sit in front of the TV for 170 minutes per day and the AppleTV is embracing this whether it is for entertainment, gaming or even practical purposes.

As technology constantly advances, the price of fantastic gadgets and devices comes down. The AppleTV hasn’t escaped this and is now an affordable product for all that likes to stay connected with new technology. AppleTV allows you to connect your TV to the world and download apps just as you would on your iPhone, Android or Windows device. There are competitors on the market such as Amazon Fire and Google’s Chromecast but the AppleTV remains as the only device that actually stores and keeps apps ready for use.

As well as this, the AppleTV’s remote control gives a great advantage over other options as it is a touch pad; this means that if you are used to using apps on your touchscreen mobile (like many of us are), you can control what is on the screen without having to look down and search for buttons to press which allows you to connect with what is happening on the big screen.

As prices of products like the AppleTV fall and become more affordable to those in Social Housing, there are many advantages including educational apps and watching streaming services such as the BBC without having to pay for a TV license as they will not be watching it live.

However, the benefits don’t just end at entertainment; apps like 1st Touch, which is used by over 1.6 million properties, will be available which will make the whole process of requesting repairs, reporting issues in communal areas and reporting anti-social behaviour a whole lot easier. With just the touch of a button, someone can make a complaint or request a repair and they can be kept up to date as their request is processed; for example, if they have requested a plumber, a notification could pop up informing them that a plumber is on the way. This is especially helpful is someone has lost their mobile phone or had it stolen as they can still use important apps like 1st Touch if there are any problems.

Furthermore, one of the biggest problems with mobile phones, still to this day, is signal. It seems like every day that we have a moment where signal is lost but having the AppleTV there will remove this problem. The AppleTV will be constantly hooked up to the internet meaning that if someone has a problem accessing important apps like 1st Touch from their mobile phone, they can switch on their TV and do it that way instead.

Apps are the way forward and AppleTV is embracing this for the better, it really can help people to become more efficient and supported in their everyday life as well as being able to listen to music and watch streaming services.